Apparatus for making gas.



PAIENTED OCT. 9, 1906 L. P. LOWE. APPARATUS FOR MAKING GAS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.9. 1905.

3W humus LEON 3, Lone, OF SAN ramciseo, CALIFORNIA.

- APPARATUS FOR MAKING GAS.

.To alil whom it) may con-earn:

Be it known that I, LEON P. LOWE, a c-itizen of the United States, residing at San Francisco, ,in the county of San Francisco and. State of California, have invented eer I tain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Making Gas, of which the following- .1s a specification.

' This invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing'gas,the OlJJGGt oi" the 1nyention being to provide an apparatus which .can be used to manufacture gas with greater economy than heretofore.

erator being shown in vertical section.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of the apparatus, the gem Fig. 2 a plan view thereof.

Referring to the drawings, 1 represents the casing of a generating-chan1ber, the main por- 20 tion of which is divided by'arches 2 into three compartments 3 4 5, 'eachcompartment supporting refractory material '6. The uppermost compartment 5 connects with a flue 7, closed by a valve. 8 and leading to the mouth of a stack 9. The lowest compartment 3 connects with a passage 10, formed 'by a. partition 11 and a protective Wall 12,

the latter forming the back of'a coking and combustion chamber 13, said passage connecting' with said chamber over the top of said wall. The cokin -chamber 13 is provided with an upper door 27 for admitting the material to be eoked and with a lower door 28 for removing the coke. Into the top of said coking and combustion chamber 13 discharges an oil-pipe 14, the oil being atomized by steam through a pipe 15. Air for combustion is also supplied by a pipe 16, controlled by a valve 17 Into the top of the uppermost compartment 5 discharges a steam-pipe 18, and into the top of the intermediate compartment 4 discharges an oilpipe 19, the oil being atomized by steam through a pipe 20. From the top oi the lowest compartment 3 leads a gas-outlet pipe 21, which also connects with the top of the coking and combustion chamber .13 by a branch 22, controlled by a valve 23, which may be used to close either the pipe 21 or the branch 22. The pipe 21 leads to a washer 24, from which the. gas passes by a seal 25 to the usual scrubbers, purifiers, &c.

The operation of the apparatus is as iollows: The material to be coked having been charged into the coking-chainbenthe ii rst step of 'the process is the heating stage, in which Specification of Letters Paten' Application filed August 9, 1905, Serial Ne 273,368.

Patented Oct. 9, 1906.

chambers 3 4: 5 in succession, heating the re- 1 iractory material 6' therein and escaping by thefiue T. The refractory material having been sufiiciently heated for the purpose of gas-making, the valves 8 and 17 are closed,

and the gas-making stage commences.

In order to understand the nature of this invention, it is to be remembered that when oil is passed over sufficiently highly heated reiractory material it is broken. down and converted into solid carbon in the form of lampblaek and into gaseous products of'ivaxiying luminosity, the degree of luminosit 0 the gases so produced varying with the" cat applied thereto. If the heat be sufficiently great, the resulting gases may be rincipally non-luminous gases, such as hyd iro'gen and marsh gas. As the temperature of the refraetory material falls the oil is not so highly decomposed; but gases of greater chemical complexity and greater luminosity are producedthat is to say, in the process of gasmaking by which oil is partly broken down into solid carbonaceous substances the first, gases which are produced when the gas-making stage commences are of very low candlepo'wer, which increases as the gas-making stage progresses. All of these gases are,however, commingled in the gasholder, so that a substantially uniform gas results. However, by my present apparatus the gas roduced is substantially uniform as it is pro uced. The principal advantage of this is that the gas is produced more economically and with less Waste of oil converted into solid carbon than with such heretofore existing processes. Therefore after the preliminary st age of heating has been carried on to a sufficient extent the air-blast is shut oil' by the valve 17 and the valve 8, leading to stack 9, is closed. Steam is introduced through the pipe 18, and oil is introduced through the pipes 19 and 14, atomized, respcctivcly by the steam-pipes 20 and 15. The steam introduced through the pipe lSis superheated by the refractory material in chamber 5 and mixes with the oil introduced through the pipe 19, combining with that portion of the oil broken down into solid carbon to iorm hydrogen and carbonic-oxid gases, a portion of the oil forming a certain amount of steam admitted through v 'pipe 15, and the gases distilled from the tarry down the oil largely into so lid a rich fixed oil-gas. At the: ame time the oil passed through th" pipe .14, together with residue are passed upward through the highlyheate'd chamber 3, ,the effect bein to break car onaceous form and non-luminous gases, These gases intermingle in the top 'ofthechamber 3 with the fixed gases of comparatively'high candlepower obtained from the steam and oil pass-. 1n downward, and the resulting gas is drawn the require 0 by the pipe 21, bein a gas of substantially degree 0 luminosity. As the temperature of the refractor material, in

chamber 3 falls less solid car onis formed and the candle-power of'the'gas increases,-

' and the amount of oil passed through the pipe iduced is maintained substantial? By means of the Valve'23 the apparatus may be used, if desired,'in the ordinary manner of makinggasthat is, by raisingth e Valve 23 so as to close the pipe 21 to the generator all the gas may be caused to pass downward through the refractory materialin the compartme'ntsb 4 3 and through the branch pipe" 39.

22 at thetop of the coking and combustion chamber.

7 :ing a casing forming igating a main portion to form a coking and combus- 1. An apparatus for making gas comprisa chamber, a wall segrethe chamber from the ortion o tion chamber, refractory material in the main i portion, an outlet: ipe leading froman interfmediate' point of t e main portion, means for admitting steam and oil at points on the opposite side of the outlet from the "cokingchamber,'-and means for introducing .oil into said coining-chamber, substantially as -described 1 2; apparatus for making gascomprise i-ng'a casing forming a chamber, refractory material-in said chamber, a wall within said casingfiforming with thewall of one of the com artme'ntsa. assage, and with thecasing a'co 'ng and com ustion chamber, means for admitting atomized oil into said coking and combustionchamberfan outlet for conduct-' ing the gasesfrom' aninterm'ediate of the casing, and means for admitting atomized oil and steam into the chamber on the side of the outlet opposite to said coking-chamber, substantially as described.

3, An apparatus for making .g'as comprising a casing, refractory material within said casing, an outlet-pipe leading'from an intermediate point of the 'casing,'mea'n's for burn-v ing oil at one end of thecasing, means Wh reby the roducts of combustion may be passed in one direction entirely through said casing, Whereb the refracto A, material next to the oint o combustion 0 said oil is morehighly ieated than the remaining refractory mate rial, means for excluding air and for passing oil and steam through a portion of the refractory material on the side of the outlet nearest the point of combustion'in one direction, and means for simultaneouslypassing oil and steamin theother direction through a' 'portion of the refractory material "on the other side of the outlet, substantially as" described. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses. Y

' a L. P. LOWE- Witnesses: u i

' EDITH WOODWARD, r 'Bnssm GQRFINKEL. 

